Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan's policy

Abstract

To offer an exhaustive investigation of the role of Kashmir in Pakistan's domestic and foreign policy, particular attention should be devoted to the strategically located chunks of Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir (PaJK) – Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). Pakistan's interaction with these two entities serves as a key manifestation of its ideologically motivated, revisionist policy as they play incessantly essential role in implementing an official discourse with its anti-Indian component. At the same time, the whole array of policies is aimed at exercising strict control over the social, political rights and liberties of the local people, which contributes to the institutionalised marginalisation of GB and AJK. Disregard for the rich, multireligious heritage of AJK and using its territory to train the Islamic militants for the proxy strategy by the army/ISI conglomerate fit into the rhetoric of Islamic exclusivism, which became the core element of Pakistani state-controlled political identity. Sectarian violence which escalated in GB since the 1970s, the state-supported attempts to alter local demographics and enhanced strategic significance of the region as the Chinese gateway to Pakistan with its pivotal role in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) profoundly affected the internal situation in this chunk of PaJK.